Human Cost of the Global Conflict: Casualties of World War II

This war, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, is one that had more casualties than any conflict preceding it or since. Ultimately, it was a conflict where civilian casualties actually exceeded military casualties, which reflects its immorality.

It must be said that after the swift defeat of Poland in 1939, a rather phony war of military inactivity did not suggest that fighting would be that great. However, for the nation of Poland, the war actually resulted in casualty estimates of up to 16% of the overall Polish populace. This, after German and Soviet troops had passed through it.

In the West, the Western Alliance of Britain, America, and France actually escaped relatively lightly. France's defeat was swift, and aside from their participation in the Norway campaign, the Vichy regime would ensure a large part of French neutrality for the duration. Altogether, approximately 567,000 French casualties are recorded.

Even Britain, engaged for the duration, bombed during the Blitz, and with British forces involved in Africa and Europe, only had approximately 382,600 military casualties and 62,800 civilian casualties. The Dunkirk evacuations spared the BEF (British Expeditionary Force), and Battles like the Battle of Britain were not especially large in scale, with only hundreds of British pilots being used in air combat.

Of course, Commonwealth nations like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also lost soldiers and civilians in Europe and the Pacific. Although the more limited military involvement resulted in losses amounting to approximately 95,000 altogether, with only 700 civilian losses. However, India lost an estimated 1.5 million civilians and a further 87,000 military personnel, which was more than the rest of the Commonwealth combined.

The USA, although largely engaged in the Pacific against Japan, and later Europe, had mainly military casualties only. 416 thousand American military personnel lost altogether, and only approximately 1,700 civilians in a country that had no fighting on its soil, except for Pearl Harbor. Stiff Japanese resistance in defense of Pacific islands was a main source of fighting, as well as the Battle of the Bulge, which was the biggest military engagement in which American soldiers were involved.

It is worth mentioning China, on the allied side, also. Invaded by Japan in 1937, they lost a staggering estimated 16.2 million civilians (largely famine-related) and 3.8 million soldiers. Combined, making for 20 million casualties overall.

It was, in fact, in Eastern Europe that the war had the most casualties. Germany's invasion of the USSR in 1941 would ensure millions of German and Soviet troops would fall through ground and tank warfare. Civilians of Jewish and Slavic descent were hardly protected, and it is quoted that Stalin actually supported keeping Russian civilians in Stalingrad to ensure stronger resistance during the battle for the city. It was in Russia that Germany lost most of their soldiers via combat or imprisonment, but the USSR lost more, with the highest casualties of the war, recorded at approximately 10.7 million Soviet soldiers and 11.4 million civilians.

Often overlooked is the Balkan region. Here, Yugoslavia lost approximately 446 thousand soldiers in defending the Yugoslav State, and a further 514 thousand civilians. Overall, approximately 1 million altogether. The Greeks also lost an estimated 311 thousand, but only 20,000 soldiers.

Of the defeated nations, the Axis alliance, Germany lost approximately 5.5 million soldiers and a further 1.5 million citizens. As mentioned, most of the soldiers lost were in the east, but also included Western European and African fighting. Allied bombing of German cities, like Dresden and Berlin, was a source of civilian casualties, as well as the Soviet advance on German territory, which included the Battle of Berlin.

Their allies, the Italians, lost an estimated 301,400 soldiers. 145 thousand civilians were also lost. Their military defeats in North Africa and the invasion of Italy itself were the main sources.

In the Pacific, the Japanese lost approximately 2.1 million soldiers and a further 580,000 civilians. These were via naval, land, and air engagements, which latterly involved Japanese kamikaze tactics resulting in self-inflicted losses. The American use of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 ensured further civilian casualties.

Overall, the total estimated casualties on all sides amount to 72 million. In total, the Allies actually had many more casualties than the defeated Axis nations, with an estimated 83% of the overall casualties. This is somewhat perverse, given the actual outcome.

These estimates, largely based on historical scholarship and research, have been revised and debated since the period. They serve to highlight the brutality of the conflict, and ultimately the evil of war.